Maharashtra Cabinet rejects Adarsh report

The Maharashtra Cabinet on Friday rejected the final report of the state-appointed commission that probed the Adarsh housing society scam.

The two-member judicial commission, headed by Bombay high court’s former judge, J A Patil, passed strong strictures against former chief ministers late Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Shivajirao Nilangekar and Ashok Chavan, and incumbent cabinet ministers Sunil Tatkare and Rajesh Tope.

The commission, in its 670-page report, observed the Adarsh cooperative housing society had enjoyed patronage of these politicians. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan tabled the report in the state Assembly on Friday amid din, announcing its findings were rejected by the cabinet.

The report said, ''Adarsh is not saga of ideal cooperation but it is a shameless tale of blatant violation of statutory provisions, rules and regulations. It reflects greed, favouritism on the part of some people who were somebody or the other associated with the Adarsh society. It is a sad story of unscrupulous greed of same persons closely connected with the Adarsh society.''  Besides, the procedure followed by the Adarsh society for providing the names for membership was arbitrary and lacked transparency giving scope for nepotism and favoritism.

The commission said, “Adarsh is a Sanskrit word, which means mirror that reflects the image of objects which face it. However, the Adarsh society has reflected images of many persons who are in or behind it. Adarsh is neither ideal nor role model but bad precedent.”

The judicial commission observed the permission and clearances given were quid pro quo. It has also named former state Assembly speaker Babasaheb Kupekar, former secretary Ramanand Tiwari, former BrihanMumbai Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak and former officials Pradeep Vyas, PV Deshmukh and Prof SV Barve whose relatives or associates got flats in the society in exchange of various approvals.

This apart, the judicial commission said 22 transactions were found benami, which were prohibited under the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988.

Moreover, the judicial commission said 12 government officials violated service conduct rules. They included Subhash Lala, Pradeep Vyas, Jairaj Phatak, Ramanand Tiwari, C S Sangitrao, D K Sankaran, I S Kundan, T S Benjamin, P V Deshmukh, Suresh Joshi, T Chandrashekhar and U Luktuke.

Chavan, however,  informed the Assembly that the state cabinet accepted the judicial commission's interim report , filed in April 2012, in which it had said the land on which Adarsh society was constructed belonged to the state government and not the ministry of defence. According to him, both the plot of land and membership to the society were not exclusively reserved for Kargil war heroes or their survivors.

The state government's move to reject the report gives a relief to Ashok Chavan who is among the 13 persons chargesheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

This week, Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan refused to grant permission to the CBI to prosecute Ashok Chavan. The former chief minister was accused of including a civilian quota in Adarsh society in exchange for apartments for his family members in the complex.